5 Star Ratings at MDW Fair

My 5 Star Ratings Project: 

This book presents a collection of 500-word art reviews of my artist website, each produced by users of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which enables micro forms of paid labor called HITS (Human Intelligence Tasks). By paying users five dollars each to write a review of my website, I am reacting to recent press that is critical of the validity of online reviews on websites such as Amazon and Ebay. But more critically, I’m interested in starting discussions and asking questions about how technology and the Internet have changed the way artists construct their identities. What does it mean when we can all create our own press? What value does crowdsourced press have both to the general public and to artists?

The reviews selected for this first edition of 5 Star Ratings aim to convey the depth and humor of the reviews I’ve received as part of this ongoing project. Many of the reviews present my work in a favorable light, while others are more critical. Some reviewers try to convey to readers what the work is about while others simply offer their opinions. As a consequence of these reviews I’ve removed or hidden whole sections of my past work in order to focus and define my work as an artist. As this project continues I’m interested in hearing feedback from readers of this book regarding not only the reviews themselves, but also the intent of the project as a whole.

To purchase a copy please see my table at the MDW Fair.  
November 10^th and 11^th: Open Hours 12 – 6 PM

A $5 discount will be offered to participants for volunteering to be recorded reading one of the reviews.

Click here for a free PDF of the book with a cover created by a Mechanical Turk user. 

Thanks goes to Nick Naughton at La Cucaracha Press in Kansas City for an amazing print job.